Will Partouche be able to come back?
Hair and small white goatee, tan perfect, Patrick Partouche
, CEO of the family group which is the number 2 of the French casino operator, receives the Express in his Paris office.In this early September, he seems optimistic and more aggressive than ever.Just back from Cannes where the Partouche Poker Tour was playing, the leader of 46 years, voluble and determined, who is completely excited by the idea to receive the Express, lost his temper, embraced his father, Isidore, who waved his son "Kiss, boss," said the director before resuming his argument and confirm his truth: no, there is no danger for our group.Partouche is still doing well.
But, despite the energy expended to demonstrate that everything is fine, nothing is going so well for the champion group of slot machines, who suffered of a bad run as he had never known since its inception in 1973.In a context of unprecedented crisis for the games industry, the
online casino operator has lost 17 million Euros in 2009.In addition, he is carrying a debt of 400 million - including $ 100 million they have to refund in 2011. They also just missed this summer' the occasion to increase their capital, accelerating the decline on the stock exchange: from EUR 21 in 2005, the action fell to 2 Euros in August 2010.
If Partouche has not anymore the "Baraka" (expression to say chance in French), that's not entirely its fault."All of the sectors have been going badly since 2007, argues Georges Tranchant, president of the fourth French casino operator. The turnover fell to 20% in two years "A violent change after a decade where we could save a growth with 2 digits, due to the introduction of slot machines in France in 1988.We just need two steps to stop the progression of this sector.
The first, the identity check at the entry of casinos, this precaution didn't help at all and holyday people weren't very happy about this law said Lawrence Lassiaz, the boss of Joa, third French casino operator.
The second, ordering the prohibition of tobacco. This decision has been even more detrimental to the casino operator: Through this law, players were just fleeing, sometimes as "addicts" to the slot machine as smoking.The economic crisis, finally, didn't help at all.
This troubled period, which marks the "end of a glorious period" where the activities of casino was a way to get benefit, sounded probably the end of the Partouche family which owns approximately 80% of the capital.Buoyed by the explosion of business in the 1990s, the group has desired to capture the market and become number one in France."With their big egos, the Partouche were desperate to become the No. 1 industry," remembers a competitor.But in this headlong rush, the family has not taken or constructed such great casinos as the one in Aix-en-Provence.The group has also purchased small establishments in the province, which ones are providing, ten years later a big deficit in the accounts of the group.
Will Partouche be able to come back?
By: Johnathan Sin
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